Both Sides: Taxpayers association and Green Bay school district on referendum

GREEN BAY – The Brown County Taxpayers Association is coming out against the Green Bay Area Public School District's multi-million dollar referendum.

The item will be on Tuesday’s ballot.

District leaders are asking for $20 million. They say the money is needed to fund renovations at Franklin and Washington middle schools, and four elementary schools.

The taxpayers association says the district needs to borrow money because it has not budgeted enough for maintenance.

We hear from both sides.

"And this is not the end. Their plan is to continue to under fund regular maintenance on an annual basis, and come to the voters with borrowing requests every few years. This is not an acceptable financial practice. It is time to say no,” said Richard Parins, president of the Brown County Taxpayers Association.

"We have a revenue limit per student that we have to deal with with the state of Wisconsin, and our revenue limit per student is $800 per student less than the state average. If we were at that state average, we would have $12 million of revenue each year, and we wouldn't have to be talking about referendums,” said Alan Wagner, Green Bay Area Public School District CFO.

Property taxes would not go up it the referendum passes, but they would go down if the measure is rejected.